Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was unlike any I've ever had before. Pramod and I, along with the other WWOOFers here, were invited to a party hosted by Albert's friend. However, come Thursday morning, we had no idea where it was, what time dinner was at, or how we were going to get there. We did have Albert's phone number, but instead of calling him right away we had a relaxing morning where I read for hours (I finished The Road by Cormack McCarthy).

We then decided that it wasn't important for us to go to the party--so we had the day to ourselves. We went in to town to see the new Harry Potter movie (so good!) then came home to the ham and pecan pie that the farm owner had left for us for Thanksgiving. One of the neighbors had also left us a fish that he'd caught.

Pramod grilled the ham and boiled the fish and I warmed up some leftover mashed potatoes and made a pasta dish which turned out pretty good. While we were cooking, Abby and Jesse (another WWOOFing couple from Oregon) came home from the beach. They had also decided to skip out on ths party. We, plus one more, shared in on the good food and drink. It ended up being a pretty good Thanksgiving.

I realized something too. We didn't actually talk about what we were grateful for, but I did think about it. I'm grateful for Pramod. The thought of being without family for this holiday was saddening to me. However, Pramod got me through that and I enjoyed my day with him. I'm grateful that I have him here with me through everything. He's shared the amazing-ness of this trip with me. He's also been there through my crankiness, sadness, and stress. He's been an amazing travel partner and I'm glad I've had him to share the load with -- both literally and figuratively.

Weekend with Albert

This weekend was for sure the best weekend I've had on this island. -- it included staying in resort-like accommodations, kayaking on the pacific, chanting Hindu style, and swimming with dolphins!

On Friday all of us WWOOFers packed a cooler of food for the weekend. Albert took us all to Captain Cook that evening. We went camping at the farm owner's beach house. This place was amazing! A huge lot with two full houses (the caretakers live on the property for free and do indoor & outdoor work for these people--I'm very jealous of their situation. We all actually camped outside except that Pramod and I didn't bring our tent to the island so we got to sleep in the "tree house" which was so nice!

Albert was also great: he made lots of fish meals on his camping stove for the group, fish that he had caught, and he cooked veggie burgers for me.

The next day we all took out ocean kayaks. By the way, it turns out that I get extremely sea sick, at which time it helps to jump off the boat into the beautiful, blue, warm water. We went over to the Captain Cook monument and snorkeled. We love snorkeling and just watching the fish. On the way over we saw dolphins! Pramod and I got out of our kayaks to swim with them but got scared seeing the nothingness that was below us and went back. That was our dolphin experience for the day--seeing them swimming and jumping from the safety of our kayaks.

That night, Albert and everyone else moved to a different campsite. Pramod and I hitchhiked to a kirtan which we found out about through Monica and her hosts. It was so much fun and we met some really great people who made us feel like Hawaiias a living spot may not be such a stretch. So that was fun and exciting. Pramod also met an Indian man living here who is married to an American woman.

After that night of chanting, we returned to the group at the campside. Not for long: we left them again the next morning to swim at Kealakekua Bay (again) where Monica texted us from to let us know the dolphins were there! And the were just jumping, spinning and swimming around and under us the whole time we were there! It was incredible. I was so nervous to do it but Monica reassured us and we could hear them underwater. I guess they will sometimes actually be interested in a person and swim side by side with them. We didn't get that close, but I'm so happy by what we did get. What a magical place Hawaii is!

Two Step & Kealakekua Bay in Captain Cook

Today Pramod and I went down to Captain Cook to meet our friend from the other side of the island, Monica. Monica is farming in Captain Cook and is also close enough to these beaches to swim with the dolphins in the bay every morning. In fact, someone who lives on the beach calls the farm when the dolphins come, which seems to happen very frequently in the morning. I guess dolphins come into the bay to rest and take care of their young and then the go out to sea to hunt later in the day or at night.

However, the dolphins were not at Two Step or at the Bay when we were there...

TTwo Step is the best snorkling place on this side of the island (we have been told). It was pretty amazing. Lots of fishes. Pramod and I learned how to snorkel under the surface of the water from Monica. Amazing stuff.

Magic Sands Beach

It's called Magic Sands Beach because sometimes, seemingly randomly, the waves will hit the beach and all the sand will be gone from the beach and only rocks will remain. No one I've talked to knows the reason or whether this happens seasonally or annually, etc.

Again, beautiful beach, love learning to ride the waves! This beach is closest to our house so we've spent two days there now.

We also saw sea turtles! They were swimming around in the waves with us just under the surface of the water. Pretty incredible!

First Day off: Kua Bay and the Imu!

I'm going to write about our beaching experiences in separate posts.

We were really lucky to make it out to this beach. We were taken by these people who we met at a party the night before...

Albert, a Hawaiian guy who we work with, had a party the night before to celebrate the lighting of the imu. It was a really interesting process: a fire was going in a pit in the ground all day in order to heat up the lava rocks. Then the fire was put out and ti leaves laid over the rocks. Turkeys in tin foil and a wild boar wrapped in taro leaves and chicken wire. Soaked coffee bags were put on top of everything and then the pit was covered with sand and dirt. The food cooked like this all night.

Anyway, we met this young couple who were shocked that we hadn't seen a white sand beach yet. So the next day they took us 45 minutes away to Kua Bay. It was so beautiful. This was Hawaii! Johnny taught Pramod and I how to body surf. The waves were much smaller than at the black sand beach, but my new wave fears came back to me. However, Johnny's body surfing tips have helped me get over that somewhat. Now, I seem to enjoy the waves more each time that I go to the beach.

We were lucky to get to this beach since it is far from us here on the farm. Thanks for the kindness of others, once again!

Hawaii--Catching up

Tomorrow will begin our third week on this side of the island and I haven't posted at all since we've been here! So here I am catching up on things.

The Kona side of the big island is much drier than the Hilo side. This doesn't mean that there's no rain, it means that it doesn't rain twice a day. It's also less jungle-like. Still very tropical and all of the same great fruits growing for our eating pleasure. Sadly, the best ones don't grow on this farm. We do have banana, passion fruit (liliquoi), and guava. Also papaya but no ripe ones right now.

The farm has its good sides and bad. The accommodations are great! We have our own little 8x8 cabin, built and finished the day before we arrived. The community kitchen is really nice; complete with hot water and electricity (having a refrigerator again has been awesome: leftovers and dairy products!!). Lastly, the common area is overlooking the ocean and we get to enjoy great sunsets daily.

The work, on the other hand, is not great. We're on a Coffee estate and we work 8-4 four days a week (Tuesday through Friday). It's hard work and we are all always exhausted by the end of the day whether we're weed-whacking the whole time (as the boys usually do) or spreading fertilizer pellets on the trees or tediously searching for certain diseased branches on each individual plant. Luckily, that's only four days a week.

On the five days we've had off so far, Pramod and I have been beach side for four of them. The beaches on this side of the island are incredible! Living on this side of the island is MUCH more expensive than the other side. While we could have rented a house without electricity for around $200 a month over there, here its comparable to renting in a city on the main land. There are also many more tourists over here. Kona is filled with fancy hotels and expensive bars and restaurants, but it is so beautiful.

Dad: you asked me if Hawaii is paradise. On this side of the island it definitely is!

Volcanic Island

Earlier in the month, Pramod and I went to Volcano National Park. It was pretty cool (but obviously it didn't rate a blog entry--or I was too lazy). However, the cartoon-y idea of the top of a volcano that I had in my head was extremely inaccurate. It was more like what I picture the moon looking like inside the large crater. We're definitely glad that we went to check it out.

A week or two later, Mike took the two of us out to see the lava flow after dark. There was a new flow that was running right by the road. Because we went late enough, we were able to get as dangerously close to the lava as we wanted (the guard stays there during the day time). The lava was hot! It was so hot! Standing near it was like being way too close to a raging fire; burning our faces. It was well worth it though. We each took some sticks and tried to poke the lava. It was amazing how it looks like it's flowing and it's even red and glowing, but the outside hardens really quickly. In order to get at the lava we needed to stab the stick hard into it. It was like our experience at the glass blowing demonstration in Seattle. The lava would stay on the end of the stick and either harden as it drips down, leaving a pointy glass-like lava rock. Alternatively, if the stick was rotated, the lava would continue as a blob of hot lava which could be rounded by rotating it on the ground. It was pretty amazing and greatly exceeded my expectations.

Today was our last adventure with the lava. These days, the lava flows through a tube under ground rather than over it. The tube leads to the end of the island where is pours out into the ocean. To get to this flow, it is a very very long walk. We were walking for over an hour (one way) in the hot sun. It felt long. If we had tried to go the more direct way (driving on the road until we'd have to walk out to the ocean) someone would have stopped us from going, so we ended up walking along the coast.

There is so much steam where the hot lava hits the water that we wouldn't have been able to see anything if the wind was coming our way. Luckily, it wasn't, so we were able to see some of it pouring (like water from a faucet) out of the earth. We'll see if our pictures do it justice. It was so amazing!